Seen here in August last year, Higgins poses for a photo with current stars of the saddle Glen Boss and Damien Oliver as the trio promoted a charity golf day at Royal Melbourne.Source: News Limited

ROY HIGGINS (MBE)

June 5, 1938 — March 8, 2014

AUSTRALIA has lost a national treasure.

Roy Henry Higgins overcame the handicap of asthma and an incessant weight battle to become a champion jockey before becoming an avid ambassador for the sport. He also was a champion bloke.

Despite his amazing riding record and all the accolades that accompanied an illustrious career, Higgins was a humble man. He was forever grateful that a lad from the country could enjoy such a wonderful life which made him a national hero, took him overseas and allowed him to meet royalty as well as those who idolised him most — the punters.

He was a dedicated family man even though he and wife Genine separated. They remained close friends and Higgins dedicated himself to the future of daughters Nicole and Martine.

He was generous to a fault. At the peak of his powers he regularly answered a knock on his Brighton home door from the needy and couldn’t resist “donating” to a battler. Along with some unsuccessful business ventures, he never capitalised on the massive money he earned from racing.

That never changed his character. He was always jovial and surrounded himself with close friends and enjoyed lunches — most notably at the Post Office Hotel in St Kilda — and dedicated himself to the sport that gave him so many opportunities.

He also became an integral part of DOXA alongside Father Joe Giacobe, helping raise funds for under-privileged youth.

When Higgins retired from the saddle in 1983 after providing racing with exceptional service and promotion, he quickly discovered the then unthinking administration of the era. He ventured to the races the following Saturday and was told that, as he no longer had a jockeys’ badge, he would need to buy a general admission ticket.

Friends immediately signed him up to write a column in The Sporting Globe and Higgins returned to the racetrack with media accreditation. He later worked for the now Radio Sport National from the mounting yard — a task he loved and did with dedication.

It wasn’t until racing administrators realised the value of honouring legendary trainers and jockeys with the advent of racing’s Hall Of Fame that Higgins received due credit. He was so revered that he joined Scobie Breasley, George Moore, Darby Munro and Tom Hales as one of the first five jockeys inducted in more than a century of racing history.

“The icing on the cake of my career in racing came when I was inducted as an inaugural member into Racing’s Hall of Fame. Nothing in racing could satisfy me more than that. To be acknowledged in this way meant to me that I had achieved it all,” Higgins said.

Upon the death of Scobie Breasley in 2006, Higgins took over as patron and was an enthusiastic and hands-on ambassador.

He richly deserved the honour. The man universally known as “The Professor” rode 108 Group 1 winners among 247 metropolitan stakes winners. He won the Victorian jockeys premiership 11 times and won all but two major races in the nation on some of the champions of the era.

Higgins rode 2312 winners including two Melbourne Cups (Light Fingers in 1965 and Red Handed in 1967), a Caulfield Cup on Big Philou in 1969, a Cox Plate on Gunsynd in 1972, four Victoria Derbys, five VRC Oaks and four Blue Diamond Stakes.

He also rode the winners of many major interstate races including two Sydney Cups (Grand Print in 1962 and Lowland in 69), two Golden Slipper Stakes (Storm Queen in 1966 and Tontonan in 73) and the AJC Oaks six times. In fact, the only major races on the national calendar he didn’t win were the AJC Derby and the Stradbroke Hcp.

He also rode in France in 1963 and 1964 and rode winners in South Africa, Hong Kong and Belgium.

He and Bart Cummings formed a formidable combination and shared the pair’s first Melbourne Cup success with Light Fingers in 1965.

“I loved Light Fingers,” recalled Higgins. “She started me with Bart Cummings, for whom I was No 1 rider for 16 years. Almost 80 per cent of my Group wins were for Bart. What would have I achieved without him? We were together for two Melbourne Cups, for three of my four Victoria Derbys, five of my six Oaks wins, a Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide Cup and two Golden Slippers.

“I was lucky enough to ride for the best — Bart, TJ Smith, Angus Armanasco, Geoff Murphy and Colin Hayes — and rode internationally in France for the best trainers.”

Higgins was the punters’ pal, often carrying amazing amounts of wagers. He rode five winners in a day at successive meetings at Flemington in the autumn of 1972 and finished the three day carnival with a record 12 winners. It was estimated that Higgins’ mounts carried 40 per cent of the money invested through bookmakers alone, and that in all States and Territories the jockey’s mounts carried bets of around $15 million.

At the peak of his powers Higgins won eight successive races in Melbourne in December/January of 1976-77, beating the previous record of seven straight wins by Vic Hartney in 1940.

He rode some of the great gallopers of the times, including a month of trackwork with the legendary Tulloch and a third in the Victoria Derby on Kingston Town.

Higgins rated Galilee the best stayer he saw, Kingston Town the benchmark for middle distances and Vain the best sprinter-miler.

Higgins was a country lad, who was reluctant to come to the big smoke. He was born at Koondrook in Victoria 1938 and after beginning by mucking out stables as a 10-year-old, he commenced his riding career at Deniliquin in NSW in 1953. He quickly became Melbourne’s pin-up boy, riding four winners four times in an afternoon and twice riding five in a day.

Jockey Gary Willetts remembers competing against The Professor.

“Roy was the ultimate professional. As a jockey he had everything: great balance, astute tactical sense, daring, drive and a brutal whip action. He was almost impossible to beat in a slogging finish. He also led the way with his handling of owners and the media.”

Roy Higgins and Bart Cummings at Caulfield in 1987.Source: Supplied

His rise to national prominence came though the qualities of talent, discipline and fierce desire, and he was acknowledged throughout the industry as an inspiration for others to follow. In the early years Higgins realised the importance of PR as a powerful tool for a jockey. He interested himself in general knowledge and cultivated manners. He took steps to learn how to talk Melbourne speak and Sydney speak. He adapted himself so he could mix with a range of citizens _ from the battlers to the silvertails _ and he made an effort to digest newspaper information.

Higgins rode his last race at Flemington in October 1983.

“I retired two years after I should have given it away. The opportune time was after I met the Queen in 1981 after winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Caulfield on Manikato. I had achieved everything I ever dreamed of in racing, but the win spurred me on in the hope of another classic win instead of signalling the end.

“I took time off to help with the Phar Lap movie and before I knew it I was 70-plus kg. I sweated through hell and returned to ride a two-year-old who was being prepared for the Blue Diamond. It had 57kg in the Prelude and I worked it one hot and dusty Thursday morning and suffered a severe asthma attack. I was taken to my doctor and he told me that this could happen in a race and that I, and perhaps a few other jockeys, wouldn’t finish the race. I quit on the spot.

“I knew it was time to give it away and I realised I had fulfilled my dreams. This kid from Deniliquin had ridden two Melbourne Cup winners and won every major race in Australia except for the AJC Derby and Stradbroke Hcp; he had ridden in France and Europe for Kings and Lords and had met the Queen. He could have been a farmer or a brain surgeon and he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do all that and meet so many people and to live such a wonderful life.”

Roy Higgins with great mate and fellow former jockey John Letts at the Australian Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame awards in 2010.Source: News Limited

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